State of Markets – VIC December 2011

Essential information, plus expert insight on what is shaping the national property market...

VICTORIA

Fast Figures

$422,150 – median unit price, Melbourne

$470,000 – median house price, Melbourne

Investors shunning Victorian property marketInvestors have been reluctant to jump back into the Victorian housing market, a leading property survey has found.

The NAB Group Quarterly Australian Property survey for September found that investors were least active in Victoria and South Australia/Northern Territory, with 18 per cent and 17 per cent of activity in Australia respectively.

Owner occupiers were pushing most of the demand, at 52 per cent, the survey found.

According to the study, developers are also set to suspend larger projects for the next six to 18 months, with building set to resume in 2013.

Houses and apartments below $500,000 are expected to be the top performers in terms of capital growth, the survey found.

Deer Park bucks the trendMelbourne’s Deer Park has experienced the greatest median house price increase of the metropolitan suburbs, according to latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV).

The statistics show an 11 per cent price jump over the past quarter.

By contrast, house prices in the neighbouring suburb of Cairnlea fell by 25 per cent.

The Melbourne region overall has experienced a fall of 2.8 per cent in the past quarter.

“The 2.8 per cent reduction on the revised median house price largely reverses the small gains of the June quarter and confirms that, overall, there has been very little capital growth over the past 12 months,” REIV chief executive Enzo Raimondo said.

The REIV report also found Melbourne’s outer suburbs had more success than the inner suburbs when it came to sales, with decreasing demand at the top of the market.

Windsor, Prahran and Port Melbourne dropped to median prices that at September sat below $880,000, while Caroline Springs increased by six per cent in same period.